


night will come (but not to stay)

by Mia_Zeklos



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Birth, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Pregnancy, in a retroactive sense I suppose, you just can't rely on prophetic dreams these days smh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:40:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24029032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mia_Zeklos/pseuds/Mia_Zeklos
Summary: "Padme is gripping his hand hard enough that he hasn’t felt his fingers in about an hour, and Anakin couldn’t be happier."
Relationships: Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 2
Kudos: 49





	night will come (but not to stay)

**Author's Note:**

> /Title taken from [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8vuyd9M2LU)./  
> Written for day two of Anidala Week on tumblr - Canon Divergence/Favorite Canon work. Focused on the first one because, again, if there was one thing I wanted to do when writing this ship for the first time, it was to add just a bit of happiness to it. Could be read as a follow-up to the entry for day one, but it works on its own too, I think. Again, a disclaimer: I haven't written these characters before, but they happen to be my favourites and so I'm nervous about it still, hence the late joining into this event and the short first entries.
> 
> Hope this is enjoyable and feedback is most welcome!

Padme is gripping his hand hard enough that he hasn’t felt his fingers in about an hour, and Anakin couldn’t be happier.

He’s terrified, of course. At no point during his wife’s pregnancy had he expected the fear to dissipate, although she’d assured him that he might as well let it happen because everything would go smoothly _, and really, there’s nothing for you to worry about, Ani, this is ridiculous_. He’d nodded and agreed and quietly tried to gather the strength to keep himself afloat as the due date had approached. The fact that they’d been flying blind the entire time hadn’t helped, but he’d taken to staying by Padme’s side as often as he could, letting himself revel in the _light_ streaming from her, fuelled by the blazing trail in the universe that she is, right along with her happiness and the baby’s undeterred, growing presence, more and more grounded every time he’d tried to reach out.

It had helped somewhat. It had helped when the nightmares had got more and more insisted; it had helped when he’d gripped Padme’s hand and had told her all about it while she’d listened, her alarm bleeding into the space between them as well as the incredulousness she’d felt at the idea of meeting such fate for no good reason that either of them could see; it had helped when he had finally stepped away from the Jedi Order and had allowed the floodgates of his restraint to open, nearly drowning him with every single thing he’d tried to stifle for the last ten years. It had been almost impossible to bear at first, but he’d made it. He’d waited and watched and hovered anxiously in her immediate surroundings until Padme must have hated him at least a little for it, but he’d _made_ it and then, so had she.

A sharp, ear-shattering cry pulls him out of his desperate effort not to panic now that they’re so close and Padme’s hold on him loosens for all of a second as she watches, dazed, while the med droid hands him a child so unbelievably small that Anakin is almost afraid to take him into his arms. His eyes dart towards Padme, wild and uncertain, but she’s _smiling_ , bright and full of life as she motions him closer.

“Luke,” she breathes out as he had known she would – they’d discussed it extensively – and her voice catches on another exhausted scream because apparently it’s not over and there’s _two_ of them and this is nothing, _nothing_ like anything his visions had ever offered him. His son stares up at him with wide, unfocused eyes and he could cry, so he does, barely acknowledging the droid as it starts rattling off the procedures it performs once again. He can feel Padme’s presence in the order of things, bright and decisive and permanent, and the next burst of joy, one of many today, that follows only solidifies that.

He can’t possibly hold them both – not in his arms, though there’s plenty of space for them inside him, where he’d been feeling their warm presence for months on end – and so Anakin motions the droid closer, presenting their daughter to her mother so that she can see as much as he has; so that she can know that he’s been right.

“It’s a girl.” It sounds too choked up for it to be even slightly comprehensible, he’s sure, but Padme already knows and when she surges up to take another look and names her Leia, he finally knows – there’s nothing he can trust as much as he does the present.


End file.
